Color in advertisements

While black and white images can be beautiful and expressive in their own way, I’ve always been a fan of color. Not just color, but bright color, and lots of it. I even have a pair of yellow pants. That’s why I find this movie poster for Alice and Wonderland so beautiful. The ad immediately grabs your attention because of the use of bright colors with lots of saturation. The red of the Mad Hatter’s hair is a complementary color to the bright green of his hat and the background.

The purple and green makeup on Johnny Depp’s face along with his bright green eyes really stand out in comparison to his skin that has a lot of tint to it, making it almost white. The colors in the tie are also triadic colors making them stand out each individually while looking good together.

This movie poster gives out a playful and young message. At the same time its oddness and saturated colors make it intriguing. It makes a view want to see the movie, in hopes that it is just as bright and fantastical.

The importance of design elements

Understanding design helps us appreciate the little things. Looking at a photograph and recognizing the rule of thirds can not only help you understand the concept of the photo, but also makes you better and noticing details. Noticing these details makes us more aware of the world around us, and we can ultimately appreciate art and design more.

When we can point out design elements on our own we start to feel what the artist wants us to. When it comes to advertisements, noticing the elements of design are crucial. Take for example this ad for Ray Ban sunglasses. The use of pattern and repition make it eye-catching. The colors are repeated as well as the phrase “Never Hide” which reinforces to its audience what the brand is all about. The placement of three object pictures also breaks up the pattern and makes the ad interesting. Overall the designer knew that the use of pattern and repetition would make a compelling and youthful ad.

What is Graphic Design?

We don’t even realize it, but graphic design is everywhere we go, and it influences the choices we make and how we behave every day. When we go to the store and decide between two boxes of cereal, we’re not just comparing the prices, we’re comparing the design of the boxes. Chances are, we’re not going to pick the plain dull box with boring typography. As a culture, we like things that are flashy and loud, with lots of color and imagery.

In its most basic definition, graphic design a visual form of communication for magazines ads, websites, products, companies, etc. However, graphic design is also an art form. I think it is one of the few and unique types of art that is functional, and can also be appreciated for its craft and beauty. Being a good designer not only requires knowledge of how to use graphic design software, but it also requires creativity and an eye for art.

I love graphic design because it everywhere. Throughout the day, you will see that most of everything you touch or everything you read was designed. When we see these things we can realize the many possibilities there are in the design industry. Most importantly, seeing the design around us gives us a better sense of the world and how it works.

Which cereal would you buy?

Better Late than Never

Well, as our class comes to a close and we're getting our final projects in and blog posts, I realized that I never wrote my second blog! I was almost certain that I did, and searched all files on my computer for it, as well as the PR Writing Blog because it was not on my own. I guess it was never written and got forgotten around midterms. Since that seems to be the case, I'm adding my second blog now so hopefully all you PR bloggers will get to read it!

Since Christmas is right around the corner, I thought it would be interesting to look at x-mas advertising. I've seen the same 2 Target Christmas commercials just about every day multiple times a day and it's really starting to annoy me. But this got me thinking, are their ads even working? A recent article on Ad Age says they're not. According to the article, a survey found that half of consumers say they're not inspired to shop at the retailer who's holiday TV commercial or online promotion they liked best. That's bad news for these huge retailers like Walmart and Target who are spending millions on their holiday advertising.

The article goes on to say that because of this, retailers should spend more money and time focusing their advertising efforts to consumers who are their target markets rather than the general public. They should also spend more money on in-store promotions through direct mail.

I find this interesting. It seems like a huge waste of money for no benefit at all. These big companies should take a hint from smaller ones. Maybe they should spend more time on Google AdWords, figuring out what consumers are really looking for. They should think before they spend.

Holidays: family, food, and learning how to spend wisely

The holidays are approaching which means family time, lots of food and presents!!! But the economy is still struggling and this got me thinking, how are people going to balance needs and wants, and will there actually be any presents under the tree? A recent article in Advertising Age comments on this, and the chaos of Black Friday, which is just around the corner.

According to the article, consumers are starting their shopping early. Google research has shown that Black Friday searches have started two weeks earlier than last year, and terms such as "early Black Friday sales" are popular. This suggests that consumers are shopping around for the best deals before making big purchase decisions.

According to the article, research released last week shows that 39% of consumers are planning on spending less during the holidays than last year. Retail stores need to get creative in finding ways for consumers to spend spend spend! Their response: layaway. Check out the Sears website and you’ll see and option for layway. Best Buy and Kmart are doing it too. According to the article, Walmart’s missing out because it got rid of layaway two years ago. I think these large corporations are smart in providing this option. It can be hard to make a decision knowing that a big chunk of money will be gone and will take a lot of working hours to get back.

Overall, consumers are being smarter this year. They’re using lists, which means no more impulse buying. By researching ahead of time, they are finding the best deals. They’re paying with cash and using layaway. They’re being cautious in their spending habits. It may not be the best thing for the economy right now, but I think it’s safe to say that these are some life skills that some consumers never had before, but benefit from now. So maybe an economic crisis isn’t too bad after all if some of us really learned the value of a dollar.

Balloon Boy and Social Media, a match made in heaven.

It is official--we are crazy. By we, I mean the U.S. and by crazy, I mean we will do ANYTHING to be noticed. As if celebrities like Kanye West at the VMA's or those guys on youtube that made a beach video to the Miley Cirus song weren't ridiculous enough, last Thursday we get the worst of the worst--Balloon Boy and his family.

I was working out at the gym on campus. Forgetting my I-pod, I had to plug my headphones into the treadmill to watch TV. I tuned to BREAKING NEWS ON CNN about a young boy who disappeared and was thought to have been floating around in a home made hot air balloon over Colorado! I was at the gym for an entire hour while CNN talked about poor little Flacon, the boy who got in his father's hot air balloon. However, soon enough, the balloon landed and was found empty!! Where was Falcon?! Search and rescue teams swarmed the area and almost every other channel's daily news covered the story. So many times CNN announcers said, "Lets just hope that he's hiding in his house somewhere, and is afraid to come out and be punished" and what do you know...that's what DID happen! Or, kind of. I got back from the gym and turned my TV on at home.

Details of the Heene family started to surface during the search. They family had appeared on the reality show Wife Swap before, and the father was a professional storm chaser with a website. The Heene's were known for "living life on the wild side".

Eventually, Falcon was found hiding in his attic. Soon after, interviews with the Heene family surfaced and something funny happened. The entire event was ruled a hoax! It turns out that Falcon's parents told him to hide in the attic and when he was interviewed by CNN later, Flacon gave up the secret. When asked why he didn't come out of the attic when he heard his father calling him he said, "Um you guys (his mom and dad) said we did this for the show."Leave it to a young child to tell the truth.

Here's the actual CNN interview with the Heene family when Falcon spilled the beans:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI6UONWCq7A&feature=player_embedded

But the Heene family are not the only ones to be blamed in this situation. The media plays a large role. First it was breaking news and all over the media. Then, as the story was ruled a hoax, even more coverage was given. Try searching "Ballon Boy" on Twitter. After your first result, guaranteed within 2 seconds 60 more posts will surface and you'll have to refresh. The story spread through social media like a wild fire. Everyone was talking about it, and it ended up getting more attention than it deserved. America could just not get enough of the sick and twisted hoax the Heene's pulled.

The whole situation escalated into something that makes me sick to even think about. Have we really gotten to the point in our society where the best way to get attention, is to fake a missing child? Not only that, but it seems as though social media is just a freak show! We as American's love these kind of stories, and we eat them up. But this has to stop. Instead of blogging out a hoax, lets blog about more important things. There are plenty of educational blogs out there, whether political, international, environmental, etc. If we paid more attention to the stories that matter, I think our country would slowly fade from the reputation we have earned. It's no wonder the Heene's were chosen to be on Wife Swap in the first place. When we have families that are willing to waste the selfless efforts of search and rescue teams, police officers, and more because they knew that the media would easily grab the story, we've really got a problem on our hands. The Heene's should be ashamed of themselves, but I have a feeling they're not. They got the publicity they wanted, and even though it's not good publicity, they're infamous. Does this seem right to you?

By the way, the Heene's are going to court:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8315042.stm

Twitter, not too shabby

So the Twitter project is over and while I’m still not the biggest fan of Twitter, I see it’s relevance. Before class, I refused to get a twitter. I rarely update my facebook status and knew twitter would be the same. Who cares what I have to say in 140 characters? No one is going to read it, or reply to it. I soon realized though, that Twitter is not so much about me sharing my day as it is about sharing mass quantities of information.

At first it was confusing. What does # mean? Why do I have to put an @ sign in front of people I want to talk to? What is RT? How do I follow people, and what does it mean when people follow me? I felt like Twitter was a whole new language that I would never understand.

After using it every day for class, I started to get the hang of it. Not only did I slowly start to understand the lingo, but I realized I could follow whoever and whatever I wanted. One of the first sources I followed was CNN and the Journal Sentinel. I like reading the paper but as a college student, I don’t have time anymore. Following news sources on Twitter game me the latest headlines at my fingertips. I didn’t have to search for anything. Next I started to follow important people at Marquette and organizations that I’m interested in working for some day. While following Sheena Carey, I was able to gain access to information about internships I may not have found out about on my own. I also started following certain celebrities, just for fun, like Stephen Colbert. His tweets are always good for a laugh.

I guess Twitter isn’t too bad. Now that the project’s over, I doubt I’ll update my status as much, but I’ll still use Twitter. I can learn more about multiple topics in just a few minutes, than if I spent hours surfing the web. That in itself is reason enough to keep logging on.